Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Reformed tradition as public theology

2013; AOSIS; Volume: 69; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4102/hts.v69i1.1371

2072-8050

Vuyani S. Vellem,

African cultural and philosophical studies

This article is a South African perspective of a Black African reflection on the publicity of Reformed faith. Whilst the notion of public theology is fairly new, the article argues, it is important to define the ‘public’ of the type of public theology to which Reformed faith and tradition could be linked. As a confessional tradition, Reformed faith is intrinsically public, the article demonstrates. The publicity of this tradition is however ambivalent and tainted. I attempt to show this by discussing two important tenets of the Reformed Tradition: sola scriptura and sola fide, within the festering wounds of Black African colonialism, apartheid and the hegemony of the neoliberal paradigm in the 21st century.